Speculative Fiction—an all-encompassing genre created to describe stories of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and other stories that have an element of “What if...” in them. A story in speculative fiction is one that adds an element of the unreal, or asks, what would become of our society if history took a different direction at some important event? Fiction with a little something extra thrown in.—William D. Richards

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Monday, April 30, 2018

Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for April 2018

It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up
of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month,
though some March books I missed the last time around snuck in as well.
The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most
links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future
editions.

Captain Marta Ramos, the most notorious pirate in the Duchy of
Denver, has her hands full between fascinating murder mysteries, the
delectable and devious Delilah Nimowitz, Colonel Geoffrey Douglas (the
Duke of Denver’s new head of security), a spot of airship engineering
and her usual activities: piracy, banditry and burglary. Not to mention
the horror of high society tea parties. In contrast, Simms, her second
in command, longs only for a quiet life, filled with tasty sausages and
fewer explosions. Or does he? Join Captain Ramos, Simms and their crew
as they negotiate the perils of air, land and drawing room in a series
of fast-paced adventures in a North America that never was.

Murder on the Titania and Other Steam-Powered Adventures
includes 4 novellas and a short story about piracy, banditry, burglary,
jail-breaking, several brilliant bits of detective work and all manner
of otherwise lawless hijinks performed by the valiant Captain Ramos and
her crew.

Murder on the Titania: Colonel Geoffrey Douglas, the Duke of
Denver’s new head of security, is drawn into a high society murder
mystery on the Airship Titania. None of the passengers are quite what
they seem, including the mysterious young woman who always turns up
where she is least expected.

The Curious Case of Clementine Nimowitz (and Her Exceedingly Tiny Dog):
A simple burglary goes horribly awry when Captain Ramos and Simms
stumble across a dead body, a small dog and the deceased’s heirs, the
noisome Morris and the rather too interesting Delilah.

The Jade Tiger: a mysterious woman enlists Captain Ramos’s
aid in getting her revenge on her former employer and Captain Ramos
finds herself doing an unintentional good deed.

The Ugly Tin Orrery: Captain Ramos and her crew embark on
what appears to be a perfectly ordinary train robbery, only to be drawn
into the Duke of Denver’s political machinations via a strange metal
artifact. Throw in a spot of jail breaking and an encounter with the
lovely Delilah, and it’s all in a day’s work for Captain Ramos and
Simms.

The Flying Turk: The Airship Titania is entering a new era
and welcoming its first automaton pilot. Or, perhaps not. Captain Ramos
and Simms are back aboard the Titania for a heady mix of murder,
robbery, peeved scientists and oblivious peers, with a spot of
engineering thrown in.

Sir Corbin, the retired Hero of Jerkum Pass, rides for honor, glory,
and his pension with the aid of a magic ring. The knight’s mission takes
him to the capital of the Iron Empire. The city is in an uproar. The
emperor has been slain by rogue mages. The new empress is livid. Soon
all mages are suspect... including Corbin’s daughter.

When Corbin dies on the eve of the mission, his granddaughter Kelsa
dons his armor, his manner, and his face to save her mother. Hidden
behind the magic ring, she infiltrates his old regiment. The army has
become a slithering nest of vipers. Imperial mages and cavalrymen move
warily around each other. Both sides snare the disguised hero in tight
coils of suspicion, politics, and lies. When the vengeful empress
launches a vendetta against all mage kind, Kelsa must decide whether to
save her family or preserve the empire.

Unravel The Knight’s Secret, the first fantasy adventure of The Mage Conspiracy series. Discover a world of lurid entanglements and political intrigue where lies cut deeper than any sword.

Floribeth Salinas O’Shae Dalisay is an Off-Planet Worker, employed as
an exploration pilot by the giant corporation, Hamdani Brothers. Sent
on a routine mission to analyze one of the millions of systems in the
galaxy, she stumbles across something that could threaten humanity’s
very existence. She barely escapes with her life, but in the process,
has to shut down her scout’s AI.

As with all OPWs, she has few rights, and instead of being lauded as a
hero, the corporation thinks she is lying. Her managers believe she
found something valuable and shut down her AI in an attempt to hide that
fact, hoping she can sell that information to the highest bidder.
Grounded, and with a huge debt now over her head, Beth has to convince
the powers that be that a very real danger to humanity is lying in wait
out there in deep space.

Today’s top Horror and SF authors pay tribute to C.H.U.D. in this anthology of original fiction.

C.H.U.D. is a genre defying, cult classic film featuring monsters
living in the sewers below New York. The stories in this anthology
expand the world created by the film and add depth to the C.H.U.D.
universe like never before. From stories of apocalyptic horror and all
out monster action, to tales of underground parties interrupted by
uninvited guests and evening strolls that end in death, this anthology
will leave you both smiling and breathless.

Relive the fear as these original stories take you beyond the movie
to events that occurred before, during, and after the scenes we remember
so well.

Iona Thorn is an immortal with a gift. She can see into the hearts of
man and know exactly how much evil dwells there. But as a Guardian,
Iona won’t take a human life, no matter how corrupt they may be. Instead
she uses her talents to rid the world of the darker strain of vampires,
and L.A. is rife with them.

While battling to hold on to her most treasured possession, a stake
that contains a genuine nail of the cross, Iona accidentally awakens a
gargoyle. Edrick might share her passion for justice, but he has the
manners and instincts of another era, and is determined to protect her,
even from herself.

Iona wants to reclaim her holy stake, but the enemy may be too
formidable to beat, unless a strapping hunk of stone can be convinced to
weigh in. But the longer Edrick remains awake the weaker he gets, and
even a rock can break…

Once, Anjali Patel and Mikhail Grikov were soldiers on opposing sides
of an intergalactic war. They met, fell in love and decided to go on
the run together.

Now Anjali and Mikhail are trying to eke out a living on the
independent worlds of the galactic rim, while attempting to stay under
the radar of those pursuing them.

After a run-in with a Republican spy on the rim world of Metra Litko,
Anjali and Mikhail need to get off planet fast. So they sign on as
security aboard the freighter Freedom’s Horizon, which is supposed to
transport a valuable cargo through pirate infested space.

But they have far bigger problems than pirates, for the Republic of
United Planets sends no less than three battlecruisers after them,
commanded by none other than Colonel Brian Mayhew, Mikhail’s former
superior and now their most determined pursuer.

The chase culminates in a stand-off in orbit around Metra Litko,
where Anjali and Mikhail have to make a fatal choice. Fight and endanger
the innocent crew of the Freedom’s Horizon or surrender and face death
and worse at the hands of the Republic.

This is a short novel of 55000 words or approximately 185 print pages
in the “In Love and War” series, but may be read as a standalone.

Once, Anjali Patel and Mikhail Grikov were soldiers on opposing sides
of an intergalactic war. They met, fell in love and decided to go on
the run together.

Now Anjali and Mikhail are trying to eke out a living on the
independent worlds of the galactic rim, while attempting to stay under
the radar of those pursuing them.

When they are hired to retrieve a shipment of bootleg medical
nanobots, it seems like a routine job at first. But it quickly turns out
that they are not the only ones who are after the nanobots. And their
client has an agenda of her own.

This is a story of 5100 words or approx. 20 print pages in the “In Love and War” series, but may be read as a standalone.

Sardelle—the woman who’s battled dragons, shamans, and countless
enemy soldiers at his side—has accepted his proposal, and it’s the
perfect time for a wedding. It’s been two months since any dragons or
sorceresses attacked the city, the Cofah haven’t come after their
kidnapped emperor, and King Angulus has stopped yelling at Ridge for his
inadvertent role in destroying the castle.

Yes, it’s the perfect time for a wedding.

Never mind that the resident dragon who thinks he’s a god is
pressuring Ridge to build a temple for him, or that the
pirate-turned-scientist Tolemek has disappeared. Or that Ridge’s mother
is on the verge of discovering that magic exists and her future
daughter-in-law is a sorceress. These are small hiccups, and the wedding
will go smoothly. Ridge is sure of it. Really.

Sixteen-year-old Kiva Fariq has always dreamed of soaring on the
four-winged raptors that scour the desert skies. But the windwalker sect
is closed off to women. What’s more, it’s said the deadly predators can
only be bonded by men.

Undeterred, Kiva attempts the deadly windwalker trials in secret.
Should she survive, she will face an even greater challenge: bonding a
raptor of her own. When signs of an ancient enemy appear upon the
plains, she desires more than ever to protect her people. But the threat
is closer than anyone realizes, and will soon bury them all in a tomb
of sand and stone—unless she can stop it.

They expected her to die within hours of being born, this strange
child with blue skin. But she grew; unnatural, wild, curious and
defiant.

And then her mother found the Sea-Stone Sword, and her father became a tyrant.

Torn between who she is and who she wants to be, Sini follows her
bodyguard into the forgotten lands and the forbidden seas, searching for
an answer that the Seers have sought for centuries: how can they defeat
a tyrant? How can the Sea-Stone Sword be silenced?

Anaea Carlisle, raised on an isolated space station populated solely
by women, believes the rest of the universe has been plunged into
anarchy and ruin by an alien-engineered disease known as Y-Poisoning. On
a salvage mission, she helps rescue a hypermental named Gwydion who
challenges everything she thought she knew.

Forced to flee the station with Gwydion, Anaea finds herself in an
inexplicable, often hostile world, permanently divided between the
Galactic Collective and the Pinnacle Empire. She longs for some place to
call home, but first, she’ll have to survive …

All Thorn wanted, was to be a Battle Mage.
He had the talent, and his whole future was before him.

On the day of Choosing, he finds things don’t always go as planned.
Suddenly Thorn’s life is thrown into fast forward, and he finds himself
in a world not of his own choosing.

In a world of spaceships and blasters, instead of horses and swords,
Thorn needs to adapt and survive, make new allies, and rediscover that
although nothing is familiar, he’s still a Mage, and pirates and slavers
beware.

An exciting compilation of essay, pictures and nonsense from the 2018
Hugo Award Finalist for Best Fanwriter, Camestros Felapton. Featuring
Timothy the Talking Cat and Susan Triceracopter, the collection is a
meandering sample of posts from the eponymous blog
camestrosfelapton.wordpress.com. Covering topics such as The Last Jedi,
Doctor Who and the sureal politics of 2017, the digest is Lancashire
hotpot of gravy, potatoes and strange bits of meat in a tasty gravy.
Enjoy!

Magic is real, and Marcia’s life is a fairy tale. Except, according
to her stepdaughter, she’s the wicked stepmother. Undermined by a
meddling godmother, Marcia is struggling to raise three teenagers in a
world of enchantment and monsters. When she’s introduced to a Night Elf
who appears half her age, love is the last thing on her mind.

Count Darerick Razvano is a Night Elf–please don’t call him a
vampire! Fighting for the survival of his race, he has no time for
matters of the heart. When a charming widow inadvertently threatens the
Night Elves’ most carefully guarded secret, Darerick must seek Marcia
out to save his people.

Marcia’s devoted to get children. Dare’s determined to save his race. They aren’t looking for love, but love might find them.

In a world of monsters, love may save Night Elves and humans alike.

A standalone, slow burn, paranormal romance in the world of I Bring the Fire.

Harriet Walsh is desperate for work, but when an intergalactic
crime-fighting organisation offers her a job she’s convinced it’s a
mistake. She dislikes puzzles, has never read a detective mystery, and
hates wearing uniforms. So why did the Peace Force pick her?

Who cares? Harriet needs the money, and she’s happy to go along with
the training for as long as they keep paying her. She’d better dig out
some of those detective mysteries though, because she’s about to embark
on her first real mission…

THE REDEMPTION OF BONNIE AND CLYDE
Saving the working class from a river of greed.

The year is 1935 and the Great Depression has America in a death grip
of poverty, unemployment and starvation. But the New Deal is rekindling
hope, with federally funded infrastructure projects, like Hoover Dam,
putting people back to work. Set to harness the mighty Colorado River
for electricity and irrigation, the dam is an engineering marvel and
symbol of American can-do spirit.

So, why is someone trying to blow it up?

When an informant on the construction site is murdered, Bonnie and
Clyde—spared from their gruesome deaths and forced into a covert life
working for the government—are given their second assignment: stop the
bomb and protect the thousands of laborers and families in the company
town. It’s their most dangerous mission yet: working for a living.

Can the notorious lovers put aside their criminal ways long enough to
find out who wants to extinguish the American dream, and hopefully
reclaim a shred of redemption along the way?
The thrilling story cuts back and forth between the modern era where a
reporter interviews the now-elderly Bonnie Parker, and the dangerous
1930s undercover exploits of Bonnie and Clyde, as they are thrust into a
fight to defend the working class against corporate greed.

Dam Nation continues the explosive “what-if” series about two
unlikely heroes fighting to defend the working class during America’s
Great Depression, a historical thriller with unsettling contemporary
parallels.

Ruthless, foulmouthed, and sometimes drunk. That’s me on a good day. Just imagine what I’m like on a bad day.

My name is Reika. I don’t know who I am anymore other than the following facts:

I’m unlikeable.
I used to be a member of the Yakuza.
I think a succubus has a thing for me.
The police shot me six times.

After my discharge from the hospital I learned that I had the unique
talent to control fire. That’s right, a modern day pyromancer. I have no
idea where these powers came from, the doctor that worked on me upped
and vanished, along with all records of me ever being admitted to the
hospital.

That’s when shady people from the shadows began to stalk me, some
even had the balls to attack me. Don’t worry, I flambéed them all, I can
take care of myself. What I am worried about are the people of New York
City. Who’s going to defend them when my war with these shadow people
reaches a boiling point?

In a galaxy where the fabric of reality can be bent and shaped by a
privileged few, and almost any skill desired is a mere injection away,
one young man is thrust into the fight of his life.

Tane, a hydroponics engineer with some mean crop gene-splicing
skills, decides to get chipped. The operation gives him full control
over his autonomic nervous and endocrine systems, plus the ability to
install custom memories.

All seems well until a couple of days later aliens come knocking at his door. And they aren’t the friendly type.

Soon Tane finds himself on a frenzied flight across the galaxy with a
woman who can warp the very fabric of spacetime, her partner–who’d just
as soon kill Tane than protect him–and a starship that calls him snarky
pet names. He’s on the run not simply from the aliens but the whole
damn human space navy.

He only wished he knew why.

Unfortunately for Tane, the answer might just destroy him. Not to mention the entire known universe.

‘blank tapes’ returns with 17 new weird and dangerous tales. This is
not a typical collection of stories. If you feel discomfort, uneasiness,
a sense of disassociation and mild paranoia after reading these stories
the publisher cannot be held responsible.

‘blank tapes’ is a challenging and daring mix of poetry, experimental
fiction and short stories with dark themes. It is not for the faint of
heart, weak of bladder and narrow of mind. Inside you will find missives
from the outer parts of human experience, and a few from beyond that,
which have slipped through the cracks in reality to find their way into
your hands.

Joe Ballen’s working on a new ore-processing platform in the harsh
environment around Mercury. When a savage Atoll attack decimates his
crew, Joe is injured and must return to Earth to recover. While it’s a
setback for the project, at least it means he can rebuild his
relationship with his wife after nearly a year away.

But then the security forces come calling. Vital starship engineering
files are missing, and without them Earth has no hope of escaping Atoll
domination. Someone has to locate the files, and Ballen is bulldozed
into the not-so-choice assignment.

But he’s not the only one in the hunt. As Joe struggles to find the
data, he becomes tangled up in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse. It’s
a journey that will take him to the perilous depths of space, where no
one is quite what they seem. Can old enemies ever make good allies? And
can Joe trust even the people closest to him?

Ballen’s back in another action-packed sci-fi noir thriller, guaranteed to keep you turning the pages.

“The saw rasped against bone and Mika clenched her jaw as her own
teeth remembered the red stained ivory sliding beneath them. A crack of
powerful muscles and the marrow laid bare. Ears back, eyes hooded –
watching. She knows the man will die on the table.”

After five years of hard study, Mika has achieved the rank of
Journeyman Medici. Few know that she is a girl pretending to be a boy in
the male dominated world of Ackbarr. Far fewer know of the animal
concealed beneath her skin.

Searching for any knowledge of her kind, she is determined to travel
back to Cassai. The forests of her childhood are seductive, calling to
the memories buried deep within but she discovers that her world has
moved on without her. Or maybe it never was as she remembers.

The events in this book take place about five years after those in “The Lion of Ackbarr.”

Life should be good for Aisling Grimlock. She’s engaged to a great
guy, she’s getting the hang of being a reaper, and her rich father
spoils her rotten on a regular basis. All that changes when a series of
storms hit and the Michigan populace starts turning downright dangerous.

The streets are running with blood as people turn on one another for
no good reason and the hospital is filling up with the sick and injured.
That’s on top of the ones who are dying in terrible fashion … and
leaving nothing but angst in their wake.

Right from the beginning, Aisling is convinced the storms are magical
in origin. Of course, because she’s prone to theatrical fits, no one
believes her … until the storms hit a little too close to home and
Aisling herself is in danger from the one person she trusts above all
others.

As a cop, Griffin Davenport is used to putting his life on the line.
What he’s not comfortable with is being a threat to the people he’s
supposed to be helping. The storms, you see, don’t affect reapers but
those they love are in a heap of danger.

Aisling is determined to find the source of the storms, even if it
leads to someone in her own family. She’s willing to claw, scratch and
fight until the danger is eliminated. She’s also willing to whine,
cajole and beg if it means she gets her way.

A big fight is coming, and it will be under a cloudy sky. Will the
Grimlocks live to reap another day or have they finally found an enemy
that’s big enough to take them out?

When circumstances drive Zoya and Natalya to accept an offer from the
most powerful organization in the Western Annex, it looks like their
ship – literally – comes in. The job fails to live up to its promise and
the pair soon find themselves fighting for their lives against a booby
trapped ship and its unseen master.

The world’s deadliest dragon, the infamous Baba Yaga, is loose on the streets of Tokyo.

Dr. Rhett “Jack” Jackson and Dr. Kamala Anjali have been tasked with
helping the government take down a dragon the size of a Tyrannosaurus
Rex after it sends part of the city up in flames. Things worsen when
they lose track of dragon in none other than Aokigahara, the Suicide
Forest–a section of woods in Japan that is rumored to be one of the most
haunted places on earth. They’ve also got the yakuza who cloned the
dragon hellbent on getting her back, and they don’t care who they kill
in order to re-capture the dragon.

Jack and Kamala are joined by CIA field agent William Fry and
dragon-hunting expert Juniper Snow as they infiltrate the forest to hunt
the dragon before she can hurt anyone else. Between the ruthless yakuza
hot on their trail and the growing mistrust in their small hunting
party, it will take a miracle for Jack and Kamala to make it out alive…

Of Blood and Ashes is the second book in the series, following the Amazon bestselling Of Cinder and Bone.

A young human, Antaska, encounters love and its dark side while
traveling in outer space with her psychic cat and a giant alien.
Mischievous but evil part-reptile humanoids team up with Antaska’s
nemesis, a genetically enhanced fitness instructor, to take revenge on
her to the ends of the universe. But her unexpected kidnapping spoils
their plans.

Relationships can be complicated, especially between different
species. A fast-paced dark comedy set one million years in the future.

Alien Pets, formerly Pets and Masters in Space, is the prequel to this book.

In 12th century Ireland, all Maelan wants is to do his duty to his
Chief and maintain his family’s good name. However, his granddaughter
Orlagh, is hell bent on wreaking havoc, with no care for the
consequences

When Orlagh falls in love with an itinerant bard, Maelan must rule
with an iron fist to keep her from running away. However, her rebellion
against his strictures results in disaster and he almost loses her in
the same way he lost his beloved wife.

Maelan must make some difficult decisions and bargains with the Fae
to save his granddaughter’s life and future. Can he save her happiness
as well?

An emergent artificial intelligence immobilizes the world’s computers
on the same day that a genetically-modified influenza virus begins
killing millions. Is it war? Or something worse?

At his new job with a Seattle biotech company, Ridley Pierce refuses
to use artificial intelligence to code software for synthetic organs.
Fuzzy calculations,sweeping assumptions, and infinite loops can kill.
What Ridley doesn’t know is that an AI is already in control and his
parents are among its first victims.

Can Ridley rescue the digital world before society collapses? Or, has the Information Age already been lost to history?

Alya has anxiety issues. Well, so do a lot of people. But not everyone explodes their enemies when they lose control.

Alya is a Geep, a mutant. Her genes were contaminated by an accident
on the moon. This gives her extraordinary powers, but it also makes her a
threat.

Determined to discover the secret of the contamination, Alya takes a
position in the Lunar University.
Unfortunately, the Continuum controls
the moon, and it doesn’t like Geeps. There’s nothing the organisation
would like better than to wipe out Alya’s people completely. But Alya is
not about to let that happen.

The last time Dr. Meghan Forester saw Davin and the other infected
Kazzies, she made a heart-wrenching choice. Now, her new life is filled
with loneliness.

Trying to carry on while Davin and her friends are held captive on
Reservation 1, Meghan begins a daunting position at Compounds 10 and 11
in Washington state. There, she is thrust into a challenging new world
with a handsome assistant as her guide.

But Meghan refuses to abandon her friends, so when reports surface of
atrocities being committed within Reservation 1, she returns to South
Dakota and discovers the only way to save Davin and her friends is to
face her old enemy. An enemy who will stop at nothing to keep the
Kazzies contained, even if that means taking a life.

Captain Jess Tolvern of HMS Blackbeard is leading a Royal Navy
expedition across long-dormant space lanes toward Old Earth when an
alien fleet ambushes her battle cruiser. The aliens are Adjudicators, an
ancient race whose ethos is to judge other species and reduce their
survivors to a stone age existence.

Tolvern sends a desperate message back to headquarters and retreats
with her damaged ship to friendly systems. By the time she returns, the
aliens have already invaded Alliance territory with a powerful fleet of
star fortresses and accompanying dragoon ships, trapping and laying
siege to the allied fleet.

While repairing her ship, Tolvern cobbles together a squadron of
damaged allied warships, former raiders, and the local survivors of an
Adjudicator attack to drive off the alien fleet.

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About the Speculative Fiction Showcase

We are a blog about all things indie science fiction, fantasy and horror. Read interviews with and guest posts by spec fic writers and keep current on news from the SFF world and the latest spec-fic releases.